Commentary
by Deborah Weiner | Feb 26, 2018 | Commentary, National, National Politics, News, OP/ED, Politics
During the past year, there’s been a lot of talk about “chain migration” coming out of Washington, D.C., in the national conversation about immigration. Much of this talk has been distinctly negative. But where would we be without chain migration? Here’s where we... read more
by Andrew Silow-Carroll, JTA | Feb 7, 2018 | Columns, Commentary, National, News, OP/ED
NEW YORK (JTA) — Reconstructionist Judaism has always been something of a stepchild of the major Jewish denominations. It’s the smallest and newest of the the big four, and while it has a track record for innovations that are often absorbed into the... read more
by Josefin Dolsten, JTA | Feb 2, 2018 | Commentary, News, OP/ED, Politics
NEW YORK (JTA) — It’s the rare newspaper op-ed that breaks through into popular culture. Rarer still is a “Saturday Night Live” skit based on such an essay. But a recent piece by Bari Weiss enjoyed that perhaps dubious distinction. Her essay,... read more
by Ben Sales, JTA | Jan 9, 2018 | Commentary, National, National Politics, News, Politics
(JTA) — Because this is the world we live in, buzz is now building around Oprah Winfrey running for president in 2020. Winfrey sparked the speculation with a speech at the Golden Globes in which she praised women who have come forward with stories of sexual... read more
by Andrew Silow-Carroll, JTA | Nov 21, 2017 | Commentary, News, OP/ED
NEW YORK (JTA) — “Is So-and-So Jewish? How Jewish is she? Find out if she’s Jewish.” I often joke that JTA reporters and anti-Semitic bloggers write the same stories, only with different headlines. We proudly search down Jewish celebrities to... read more
by Ben Sales, JTA | Sep 26, 2017 | Commentary, National, News
NEW YORK (JTA) — As spiritual leader of one of the most widely known Reform synagogues in America, Rabbi Joshua Davidson tries not to be divisive on the holiest days of the year. So on the High Holidays of years past, when he stood before thousands of... read more
by Ron Kampeas, JTA | Sep 22, 2017 | Commentary, National, National Politics, News
WASHINGTON (JTA) – There are apologies, there are non-apologies and there are apologies that never were. Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are approaching: We are in the season of repentance and its most apt expression, apologizing to our fellow women and men. The Trump... read more
by Josefin Dolsten, JTA | Sep 17, 2017 | Commentary, National, News
NEW YORK (JTA) — This Jewish year was not a quiet one, to say the least. From the tumultuous first eight months of Donald Trump’s presidency, to a wave of bomb threats against Jewish community centers, to a neo-Nazi protest in Charlottesville that turned... read more
by Ben Sales, JTA | Aug 23, 2017 | Commentary, National, National Politics, News, OP/ED
(JTA) — Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis, Stonewall Jackson … and Peter Stuyvesant? One of these things is not like the others. Amid the impassioned debate over whether, when and how to remove statues memorializing the Confederacy, an Israeli nonprofit is seeking a... read more
by JTA | Jul 28, 2017 | Commentary, News
By Anna Selman WASHINGTON, D.C. (JTA) — On Wednesday, in our offices near this city’s Dupont Circle, the staff at Jewish War Veterans of the U.S.A. were opening the mail when a request came in from a veteran asking that we change her first name on our records from... read more